2 theses against the anarcho-bourgie caste in Mtl, December 1st

La "Passe" means a few things in French. Beyond referring to a "pass", like a theater pass or a peep show pass, namely, in Quebec lumpen speech it also has the connoting of fucking people over (like being conned), or to bluntly rape someone. We still use the expression se faire PASSER un sapin, that transliterates to the metaphor "being fucked with a cone tree", a colorful semantic variant on "being fucked over". More rarely it's used in tour de passe-passe, a magic trick of illusion. ALso, La Passe is a fairly-dubiously radical social center located between the Plateau and Mile End, hands down the trendiest and some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Montreal.

So last Friday evening, on December 1st, on the thick wooden door of this bland, second attempt at a progressive social-cultural center located in the very convenient and symbolic basement of a Catholic cathedral, we’ve spray-painted the words « Bourgies » and « Anar-fakes ». We only had red paint for the occasion but we thought they’d like the color anyways. And we may try something better next time if they keep being recuperative jerks.

Let's not assume too quickly... it’s not like we’re pissed off about them precisely. The city contains countless pretentious pricks and other morons to be angry at and we got better things to think about in life than boiling about them. The neoliberal capitalist spectacle economy keeps producing those on a mass scale, as they need people to work in their arts industry n shit. Go ask Bourdieu or something.

BUT we have here a bunch of quite socially-privileged edgelords from well-off social backgrounds, highly-literate revolutionaries with suspicious ties to maoists (even tho I’d prefer not to cast over-simplistic categorization on the true nature of their agenda and sensibilities, it’s more like a class issue), who got their education from private college and decided at one point, during the last 10-15 years or so, that they were brilliant, astute, competent and wise enough to be the guiding lights of the coming insurrection that never really came.

So they went on setting honeytraps, intellectual boobytraps as well, and art traps, so that the youngsters interested in a more revolutionary change in every last student strike or Occupy or action camp may end up being fucked over with a Xmas tree then left for dead in the street at the coldest of the winter. Long story short, they’re a bunch of fakesters and have got frankly annoying with their long-lasting attempt at being the politburo of the milieu. They like to remind us on how 2012 changed everything and whatever, but it only gave them better jobs and/or connections. But if they got so much resources why don’t they just leave anarchists and especially anarchy alone, stfu and go up the social ladder… or are they that much losers at social entryism?

But noooo.... They'll keep pretending they’re into some sort of insurrection while everything they do is social entry and continuous accumulation of social capital in the name of maintaining their own social status!

Fuck them all anarfakes and their bourgie antics, nice retro outfits and polite talk. You perpetuate civilization you vile pendant scumfucks. Die under the heavy sun, snowflakes.

This said, I wish all the others a Merry Black December!!!

And I wish you fuck the system (their system too) in the most imaginative, ambitious, disturbing, funny, shocking ways you can find, please!

p.s.: By the way we've lost the ashes last year of the book by Nazi ideologue Heidegger you've been keeping at the library of the first La Passe. We might burn a few more books or things we don't like instead, that may or may not be from your stuff... who knows. We might get busier with other matters this month, like at Complexe Dix-30 maybe.

Comments

Heidegger was an opportunist in a fascist world not unlike every other academic in our western nazi world that is only a few moments away from a nazi state. Underneath social welfare is the nazi state. lets be intelligent!

You're perpetuating an old liberal myth. Heidegger has remained an antisemite long after the end of WW2 and has never expressed any apologies for supporting the Nazi party. As a rector he assisted the regime in punishing Leftists, Jews and other "undesirables", his books were treated as official philosophy of the Third Reich and read through the Wehrmacht, and his theorems regurgitasted from Husserl were tained in Greco-Roman fixations and supportive roots for identitary nationalism.

sure. but lets make sure we make an illusory distinction between his works and the general works perpetuating the shit reality of political philosophy. Maybe agamben is outside; but his own work is heavily indebted to Heiddy. Nazis are everywhere.

Most people incapable of thought are just looking for a reason to discount his work. Thats the function. I read Heiddy. Im over it. reading Heiddy isn't like reading hitler simply because the latter is shit intellectual work.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Heidegger. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of philosophy and metaphysics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Heidy's philologist outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from pre-socratic literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LA QUESTION DE L'ÊTRE. As a consequence people who dislike Heidegger truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in his existential catchphrase "L'être de l'étant n'est pas lui-même un étant" in Sein Und Zeit, which itself is a cryptic reference to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as post-husserlian genius unfolds itself on their computer screens. What fools... how I pity them. And yes by the way, I DO have a Dasein tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within at least five realms of astral enlightenment as me (preferably lower) beforehand.

The text lives because the author isn't around to negotiate meaning, a fortiori if they are dead. The meaning of something is not caught up in the action that follows the theory because theory is not responsible for anything. The meaning of Heidegger appears to be forever bound in the ridiculous game of shewing that its Nazi. Over it, because the text can mean whatever you want it to mean. Same goes for game playing. The text that is life (Derrida's view) isn't something with given meaning because the author is always already dead. So wanna play? Whose rules? Meaning is dead; rules are for cops.

This text you do not read because you are dead are the Thrice-Venant (Trois-Venant de multitudes d'Être) preconditions of subtextual meaning that they Are, yet Aren't (as per Derrida's brutish predicaments of Life/Nolife). "They" in themselves prove your Non-Existence yet I am real because I impregnate the text as I would impregnate your dead butt with my phallic mind. Therefore:

If one examines the conceptual paradigm of reality, one is faced with a choice: either accept capitalist objectivism or conclude that sexuality is part of the meaninglessness of narrativity, but only if culture is interchangeable with language; if that is not the case, we can assume that sexuality serves to reinforce hierarchy. Lyotard uses the term ‘precultural structural theory’ to denote not, in fact, deconstruction, but postdeconstruction. It could be said that Foucault promotes the use of Marxist class to read and modify art.

“Society is responsible for outdated, colonialist perceptions of sexual identity,” says Derrida; however, according to Brophy[1] ,
it is not so much society that is responsible for outdated, colonialist perceptions of sexual identity, but rather the failure, and thus the dialectic, of society. An abundance of narratives concerning a mythopoetical totality may
be revealed. However, Sontag uses the term ‘capitalist objectivism’ to denote the role of the poet as reader.

Reicher[2] implies that we have to choose between Marxist class and the subdialectic paradigm of context. Thus, a number of desublimations concerning subdeconstructivist capitalist theory exist. (YES!!!)

Lyotard suggests the use of Marxist class to challenge the status quo. It could be said that the within/without distinction intrinsic to Spelling’s The Heights emerges again in Robin’s Hoods.

The primary theme of la Fournier’s[3] analysis of subdeconstructivist capitalist theory is not narrative, as Marxist class
suggests, but neonarrative. But if subdeconstructivist capitalist theory holds, we have to choose between patriarchial discourse and Baudrillardist simulation.

The characteristic theme of the works of Spelling is the role of the writer as artist. However, Drucker[4] suggests that the works of
Spelling are not postmodern.

In the works of Fellini, a predominant concept is the concept of dialectic reality. Debord uses the term ‘neodialectic theory’ to denote the role of the observer as participant. In a sense, the premise of cultural narrative holds that society has intrinsic meaning.

The subject is interpolated into a neoconstructivist theory that includes truth as a reality. But if neodialectic theory holds, we have to choose between cultural precapitalist theory and textual socialism.

The primary theme of Geoffrey’s[9] essay on neodialectic material theory is the difference between sexual identity and society. In a
sense, Foucault suggests the use of cultural narrative to read and analyse class.

The frigid December air has barely cooled the bodies scattered throughout the South Shore municipality, once known among Montréalers for being the inspiration of Bran Van 3000's 1997 hit single, but now synonymous with chaos, violence, and bloodshed. Since members of a heretofore unknown group took credit for a vicious attack against an all-too-unimportant social centre located in Montréal's Plateau-Mont-Royal arrondissement, the retaliation from incensed tiqquno-extremist militias has been hard and fast.

Our correspondents were able to find one traumatized post-leftist hiding in the cafeteria of Complexe Dix-30. "It's absolutely terrible," she told us. "Longueuil's vibrant squatting movements, zones of non-gender, all of it, totally destroyed. All for the sake of some dumb graffiti!

"I have lost so many friends... We have ALL lost so many zines, so many gay saunas."

The SPAL [Service de police de l'agglomération de Longueuil] has prevented our correspondents from getting too close to parc Michel-Chartrand, where LSD and heroin have been sold in open-air markets for years. We could, from our vantage point, see plumes of smoke in the distance and hear occasional bouts of gunfire.

Further from the frontlines, though, we did find a few members of the Industrial Workers of the World, an anarcho-syndicalist union, setting up a new worker-owned co-op café. We spoke to Claude, a starry-eyed young man with a degree in vegan economy from the University of Gottingen.

"It was inevitable that the revolution would someday come to Longueuil", he says with a laugh. "It was a terrible tragedy what happened at La Passe, but at least some good came of it.

The grievance with these people appears to be more about their social status/privilege, of which their outfits would be an expression, just like their chosen geographic location. So I guess that blaming so-called anarchists for their carelessness about their class privilege should make it sound more like marxist...

"thick wooden door of this bland, second attempt at a progressive social-cultural center"

It's in the "communique" not the graf. I agree, anarchists should think critically about their backgrounds, but I've been around anarchism long enough to know that there's little evidential relationship between accusations like this and reality. Maybe La Passe are bougie, maybe not (there are lots of "bland" prole bars in the world), but it's just as likely that the anarcho-scene-police milieu this attack emanated from is also bougie.

Weird quote that doesn't say much... but that'd be funny to be seeing bougies bitching on other bougies for being bougie. Prolly possible, proly even happens. But I don't see anything that makes this bloodthirsty devastating attack upon this center to be of bougie character...

"So I guess that blaming so-called anarchists for their carelessness about their class privilege should make it sound more like marxist..."

This is nothing other than marxists attacking hip people for the glory of the so called worker. Not that the people I know who've been involved in le passe aren't what would be considered working class. Art/social science degree turned bartenders who make good money on tips. Only to these juvenile graffiti artists with long winded communiques, which are only outdone in their self indulgence by the banner drop communiques, do these late 20s baristas and servers with liberal arts degrees look like the beacon of the gentry.

I guess if they tried to look punk, did it in a squat, then they'd be Anarcho-Reals™. Its silly. This communique is silly. And now someone has to wash some graffiti off the wall or face the headache of having to find a new place for their letter writing night or whatever.

La Passe is also a chess move when a pawn uses the first double sqare move to escape being taken by an enemy pawn, which has the option of taking it as if it had done the single square move, just saying.

"we have here a bunch of quite socially-privileged edgelords from well-off social backgrounds, highly-literate revolutionaries with suspicious ties to maoists"

I'm a little confused at this point … You hate them for being rich, maoist sympathizers who read? Fair enough I guess.

"So they went on setting honeytraps, intellectual boobytraps as well, and art traps, so that the youngsters interested in a more revolutionary change in every last student strike or Occupy or action camp may end up being fucked over with a Xmas tree then left for dead in the street at the coldest of the winter"

You think they should house all the street kids? I've done some of that, it's fuckin' rough. Requires a lot of resources and dedicated people. Noble sentiment but seems unfair to place the entire city's burden on one doorstep. Plus running a clandestine shelter is heatscore as fuck.

"Long story short, they’re a bunch of fakesters and have got frankly annoying with their long-lasting attempt at being the politburo of the milieu. […] Fuck them all anarfakes and their bourgie antics, nice retro outfits and polite talk. You perpetuate civilization you vile pendant scumfucks. Die under the heavy sun, snowflakes."

It's neat to watch internet troll diatribes merging with petty vandalism direct action models! I feel old but also like, I will be highly entertained in my old age so that's neat!

I find it pretty hilarious that these people in the same sentence lambast Heidegger for being a Nazi Ideologue, but then talk positively about burning books because they contain content they don't like.

Huh... You mean as in "antifa are the real fascists" kind of hilarous? So because some Nazis were sent to labor camps of Allied countries for a while after the war, that made Western democracies into literal Nazis... also my neighbor has a mustache too so I suspect he might be into Hitler.

so you are addressing me then. Its pretty defensive of you to assume that is the argument I'm making. If fact I've never liked the argument as it implies you can't physically attack a force without being exactly like what you are attacking, which is nonsense. Though its strange to me that you don't seem to have an issue with a group of people who clearly have a problem with Nazis but then do something that the Nazis were well known to have done for similar reasons, burning books because of their content and the qualities of the author.

But srsly, La Passe is not a politburo - and if they're trying to be, they're failing, lol.

I don't "support" their "politics", but I've organized events there and been to things I appreciate. I don't like a lot of the nonsense that gets repped in their space, but I like having access to history that otherwise might be less accessible to me. And you're talking like they're all Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois levels of privileged education and politician sliminess, which is just not fucking true.

I thought parts of your communiqué were funny, but if you got them in trouble at all with their landlord, then fuck yourselves. It reminds me of shit that happened in the first town where I got into the local anarchist scene, in which there was a café and a bookstore rented in a larger "arts centre", and it got fucked up just before I was finally able to get my stupid 17-year-old ass to move there from deep countryside because people broke the toilet shared with other spaces in the building. That was also idiocy carried out by a resentful fuck with a bone to pick, and the consequences of it were pretty overall shitty for me. This interesting space, in which I had met people and talked ideas and saw my first most-awesome punk show and all, was now gone.

Also, like, you could have "attacked" something actually bad like THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. You were ALREADY THERE. Do like some Bash Back! hooligans did in 2008 or '09 and write "Nietszche was right" on the church, lol

I agree on a certain level. But I wouldn't want to underestimate the rage that someone might have towards smug intellectuals in general. I know I have felt this at times in my life.

I know 4 people around that whole scene. 3 of which I would consider friends. Out of those, 1 is definitely not middle class, the other two definitely are. One of those two I would definitely consider a smug intellectual of sorts, but I can maintain my friendship with them all in spite of this because I don't relate to them on a projectual level. They are my friends the same way my sexist construction worker friends and my non-anarchist friends from my childhood are, and I keep it on that level. I know, and I'm pretty sure they know, that neither of us take each other seriously beyond a certain point, so we keep conversations general.

All this being said, the only time I have spent at la passe was when the old la passe was under threat of eviction. In that senario, that old leftist nationalist, or maoist or whatever they were who they were using to maintain their space was definitely acting in a politburo type of way, and by extension so were the tiqqunists since they were just going along with him. I have heard other similar stories from other incidents with that whole tiqqunist scene. ARE they a politburo? no. But I think the hyperbolic accusation is not totally out of touch with reality. Unfortunately, their unber-materialist philosophy does seem to have taken out their teeth as "revolutionaries". It's sad. My response is different from the people who did this action but I can't pretend it's totally without merit.

I have also heard that a bunch of other people in this scene are also phd students and shit like that so I don't think the class-prejudice accusation is totally out of line either.

as a reason to attack people. Like, it can make sense, and I also experience it in my own way, but I don't actually think it's necessarily very useful to any end (which would be more, like, "class struggle" then "class hatred"). And that's what makes this a funny action, that I'm going to make fun of, rather than a cool thing that I think is lit.

And like, when it comes to the criticisms and their conduct during critical moments, I think the internet is a bad place for voicing them, and this attack is a dumb reason to bring them out. Also, with regards to that whole eviction episode, I'm not just critical of La Passe and/or certain people associated with it, but also (and probably more so) with our side for not being willing or able to fully seize control of that situation.

It's like, Yes, we can hate on the PhD student bourgies for being, y'know, all the things they are that we don't like - and we'd have reason to do so, and it can certainly feel good to be a hater with a cause.

Or we can think about how, in that critical moment, we could have been more confident in the rightness of our own ideas and our ability to do what we wanted to do. And why, in this less critical moment, what the mature thing to do is now that they might have a little trouble again.

Past beefs aside, I'd like to email La Passe myself and ask 'em what they need.

Is how quickly you appear to be jumping on some defensive solidarity train with those well-known "comrades". But are you belittling what is indeed a trivial yet significant act of class struggle into "class hate", or just "haters"? I thought that the more socially-privileged were riddled with a structured, civilized, polite form of class hate already...

La Passe aren't your landlords. They aren't your employer. They aren't trying to collect your debts. They aren't providing a stamp of legal approval to development projects that will ruin your air and water. They aren't driving around Longueuil in cruisers and putting people in handcuffs.

The worst they have been accused of is being snobby intellectuals, and of existing in a trendy neighbourhood. Which, like, makes 'em big bads in your book, but not mine. And which is why I think you are in the emotional place of hatred rather than any kind of strategically considered place of struggle.

Also, like, I don't want to give off the impression that I think You Must Struggle Strategically. Do what you want, but don't expect applause from anyone for this kind of stupidity. Surely you can get your insurrecto jollies off some other way.

Read more constitutive Vs institutional power... or more simply the principle that just because some crowd doesn't have instituted official positions in the system does not necessarily discount from pursuing capital, eve if only social capital. There's also business managers or even owners who got institutional positions in the capitalist system yet

The lines of participation to capital are blurry and changing, yet also ain't just about capital in the capitalistic sense. There's also deeper issues like class privilege, authoritarianism, herd control, oligarchy that may not be always addressed in a strictly anti-cap analysis.

Tell me, ss... what is the strategic value of doing shit with a gentry that is at least as socio-economically privileged as your own crowd? To take over the tertiary sector of the spectacle industry maybe? But to what ends? Radicalize the Mile End/Plateau gentry!? Lolmuch... I ain't sure there's any HONEST strategy behind a place like La Passe, or at last there's serious questions to be asked about its consistency, and finality, whatever that is, or if there is one.

Oh and thanks for belittling even more by calling such action "emotional", as if there was something pejorative to it, in the same old view of emotionally-driven behavior as being "savage", "childish", "stupid", "brutish", or even "feminine", and not enough of the Apollonian grand scheme behind starting an uppie middle-class driven project in an way uppie middle-class neighborhood, as the socio-geography, as you might notice, is also a crucial factor in any strategy, at least one that's grounded into SPACE. Furthermore, this action lacks DISCIPLINE, lacks ORDER and the civility of discourse that should be displayed in wine & chesse evenings with The Crowd! Vote union.

La Passe may not have a coherent strategy. It is a common rhetorical strategy to dismiss certain actions as savage/cowardly/blahblah in order to avoid discussing the political content of WHY an attack happened.

Neither point really matters. The point about strategy misunderstands what La Passe even is - again, it's not a politburo, it's a collection of diverse individuals working together to keep a space together - and also, it's part of an ecosystem of anarchy that supports any of us having any strategies. If we lose it, and the resources hosted there, we are all worse off.

Also, like, I've called y'all stupid a bit, but the problem isn't actually that you're stupid. Most people are stupid a lot of the time. The problem is that your project sucks. There has been no good argument as to why anyone should give you a thumb's up for this shit, lol. Lots of good reason to keep mocking you tho

Dumb asses spelt Nietzsche wrong, if you're going to write shit, the least you can do is spell it correctly! Typical thug mentality, solve all problems with displays of aggression, latent machismo meat heads.

I don't know any of these people at all but since the communique can't articulate a single tangible thing that anyone did wrong, safe to say you might find these people irritating but there's better targets out there.

Unless this is just like, bored-on-a-Tuesday-night type shit but then, why bother with a polemical rant?

Meanwhile thecollective is busy giggling and quietly chanting fight-fight-fight because you all eat, sleep and breathe drama! RIGHT?!

"I agree on a certain level. But I wouldn't want to underestimate the rage that someone might have towards smug intellectuals in general. I know I have felt this at times in my life."

This, to me, is a bizarre and terrifying comment. You could literally substitute in any other category for "smug intellectuals." Because there's rage, there's something to empathize with? Any of the examples that come to mind first might be hyperbolic, but even without that, there's something serious to question here. If rage is the basis for attacking small groups of people, is that enough to separate our actions from that of a state or any other authoritarian group? If you live in Canada, you are likely used to state violence that occurs "neutrally", within the framework of law, so maybe it's refreshing to see "spontaneous" or "authentic" petty violence. But in some other parts of the world, state violence is more often arbitrary and personal (even in the US to some degree), so the line between that and this sort of "attack" is more blurred.

If we actually want anarchy, I think we have to model it. We have to actually want more diversity in the revolution, and not seek with violence to suppress people we disagree with. A healthier model would be outdoing them or leaving them in the dust in the race to destroy state and capital. After all, it's not the tiqqunists or the left-anarchists or anybody else that are blocking the way to revolution - any impulse otherwise is more likely displacement, narcissism of small differences, and servile morality. If we train ourselves to look for people close to us to attack, we're just presenting a very grim picture of what we would do in a society without police or laws; would we use that freedom to punish others?

It's easy to make hyperbolic statements that justify "attacks" like this. It's by using self-reflection to back down from those hyperbolic feelings that we reassure others that we aren't just crypto-authoritarians. Otherwise, we can reveal just what little details we want to nitpick, and continue a pattern of stupidity that hurts all of us - last year, it was the very non-tiqqunist Discordia library in Paris that was attacked, with a hyperbolic denunciation of Discordia's "colonialism" to justify the violence.

Confusing anarchy for socialism again!? If you've lived anarchy you'd know that a model is the very last thing it needs. Moreover anarchy doesn't need anything to be realized. It's there. To get it all WE need is exaclty to quit subjecting ourselves (and usually others) to abstract models. Modes, not models are what shapes action and communication. Models is what makes bureaucrats get fat paychecks.

In my own comments, I have written "attack" several times WITHOUT quotation marks... The perfectionist in me wants to go back and put 'em there, cuz yeah, pretty soon "attack" won't even mean shit anymore, lol

How can you equate the language with the self, shadowsmoke? Not only this is what the worst strains of nationalist discourse here have been doing for a long time, BUT the French and English languages bear absolutely space for individuality or self. It is all designed as mass or collective MODE of communication. Good for its intended purpose of course, like being understood by an English-speaking audience.

Some kids get to develop their own schizo-language. Like Heidegger on acids, but without being assholes and Nazi assholes. It's cool and very creative behavior. It's beautiful... Artful... But it can't be understood by anyone.

Am I hallucinating or I'm reading the same kind of discourse used by AfD or the National Democrats about Germans having learned to hate themselves. Also same discourse was used by the MLNQ when they still existed in Quebec.

Fascists can also be aware of this fact - and use it to convince people to join their projects. It's important to note that, yes, Germans and Québecers and everyone FREQUENTLY hate their shitty lives - not because of osties d'fédéralisses or any other scapegoat, but for complicated reasons (what anarchists often shortcut to call "capitalism", "civilization", or whatevs).

I don't want anglophones to hate themselves, just so y'know. I don't think it's entirely reasonable to expect everyone in one place to always share a common language; it's even less reasonable to expect everyone to speak a language perfectly. I think populations move around, and no one should feel bad because of where they were born (including white North Americans!) or because they had (or fuck it, even just wanted!) to move some place else in the world.

Tell me how much this sounds like the MPLQ to you. And also, obviously, I'm an anarchist, which means no police, no borders, no prisons, no bureaucrats... Finally, I personally think linguistic métissage is cool, and that the sooner that Québ French starts looking to Arabic, Mandarin, Latin American forms of Spanish and Portuguese, Yiddish, Kanien'keha, and other sources for its loanwords, the happier I will be. As for other forms of métissage... A-OK in my books.

Anyway, ALL nationalism is a dead end, but so is your anti-deutschist elitism, which would rather have everyone speaking sterile international English rather than speaking dope new languages, old languages, and old/new languages.

EDIT: to be fair to this dickhead, "the Germans have perfected self-hatred" is a pretty fashy line I must admit... won't be using it in the future, lol

As soon as the State turns its back and stops monitoring their smart-asses, these mutherfuckers start attacking their allies. Long live anarchy!
I won't justify anything La Passe is being accused of by this anarchist trial, where the sentence (the graf, having to clean it up, having trouble with the landlord, and enduring this smear campaing) comes before any evidence and arguments. From what I know, all of the peep involved in La Passe are poor as fuck and work shitty jobs. Their space is used to host fundraising events for anti-autoritarian, feminist or anti-fracking struggles, as well as experimental music shows and book launches. They work a lot on a voluntary basis to keep the space open for such things. What's the goddamn problem then? That they read books? That they did have to organize with non-anarchists (sacrilege!) in order to get that space? At any rate, chances are your graff will bring them trouble with the landlord. Congratulations! There's always your mom's basement if we wanna do a fundraiser right?
How to start a politburo? Burn books and graff stores! Get yourself a bloody kristallnacht, mutherfucking piece of shit, and fuck you.

don't count on them to grasp any concept of what you just said.
they're only good at circle jerking on their shitty attempts at class struggle.
we're talking emo fantasy, we're talking book burning instead.

"At any rate, chances are your graff will bring them trouble with the landlord. Congratulations! " ROFL!!! (almost)

THANKS buddy! Just strange how it requires a bit of adversity to finally get some recognition for our efforts.

And it's kinda weird you just brought kristallnacht too, coz this same landlord -the RCC I presume, but this place could have changed ownership- was historically responsible for allowing hordes of Nazis to escape the Allies at the end of the war AND for backing the Belle Province's own fascist despot for decades. Yeah it's like be careful when attempting to throw history books at me. I guess you don't know shit about Amin Al Husseini as well...

Looking for some fascists? Look among your "allies" for starters. They may be closer than you think.

Without getting into the core of the opportunity of this "attack" and all the unconscious irony of the text, I just want to state some facts clearly :

- La Passe has always been run by volunteers. The money for the rent is hardly gathered every month from events held there.

- This "attack" comes at a time where La Passe is already in a difficult situation, in this new space it's trying to secure. Chances are this "attack" will successfully jeopardize our involvement there.

- Contrary to the "attacker"'s thesis on "accumulation of social capital", the motivation for the people who run La Passe has always been to secure a space in Montreal for activities that would have difficulty finding other spaces (i.e: without having to pay high fees). To provide a place for those projects that don't fit, that don't have financial income, precisely the type of projects that have no value for capital, that don't play the game. This does indeed include some experimental music and art projects. Do you have a problem with fucking music and poetry? Philosophy (or basically books)? Who's the maoist here?

The point is that La Passe is a space struggling to stay open without institutionalizing itself, a place where a multiplicity of projects and tendencies can meet without having to pass a political purity test, but on the sole basis of trust and confidence.

I won't list all the events that were held there in it's 4 years of existence, but globally it's political meetings, fundraising shows, feminist reading groups, noise shows, poetry nights, independent publishing book launches, indigenous talks and so on.

As for the accusation of "well-off" social backgrounds, I feel tempted not to answer at all - but apparently IT HAS COME TO THAT. Most of those involved come from lower middle class and working class families (and I mean parents that worked in factories and hospitals and shit, dumbass), some are immigrants, some were raised by a single parent, some struggled with poverty, some still do, some have to raise kids, some are students. All this bullshit on college degrees is plain fake news! For fuck's sake, no one ever got a job out of their involvement at La Passe, on the fucking contrary, the point of the place is to host projects that are NOT subsidized, have NO money and build NO career opportunities. What kind of authoritarian jerk are you to decide what anarchy is and who gets in and who should leave?

- Seriously, I really want to point to ppl who are amused by all this useless drama that all of this is very sad and disappointing. Seeing that this post had like 45 comments, while serious issues had none. Seeing how easily ppl of the "radical milieu" take their trash to the internet, for all the world's idiots and cops to see how we're all paralyzed in cocky rivalries and divisions. Seeing that doing a graffiti on one of the only autonomous spaces in this city can now be defended as a "political action".

This sort of crazy shit is strangely familiar to tactics that police has always used to divide, demoralize and create confusion in political milieus. But I'm confident that Montreal has enough confused half-schizophrenic resentful "comrades" that they don't even need to.

Maybe close comments after that one? This would be a good last word for sure. You can delete this comment too if you like.

Since y'all, like, allowed this to be posted in the first place, and facilitated all this commentariat merrymaking that was no doubt received negatively for those who will deal with the consequences of this dumb shit, I feel it would probably be the right move.

Shadowsmoke, I'm sure it was posted here because its speaks to a problem that is happening here in the US, not for the purposes of merrymaking at the expense at those fellow anarchists who were targeted. I mean aspects of this communique are funny in how foolish these people are in their reasoning for their actions, and how it just makes them look stupid. But that doesn't mean that @ news just wants you to only laugh at things like this, in fact it seems to me that the attitude in this communique resemble actions and statements directed at this website, related projects, and the people involved.

...you know, I just sarcastically posted a reply to a comment on another article that was suggesting that we look to Maoists for a development of a theory of resistance, I jokingly said that "Sounds Great! maybe we should have our own cultural revolution as well!". Now that I think on it, maybe we are having an anarchist cultural revolution right now. Maybe anarchists are in a period where instead of participating in a discourse with each other where actual critiques are put out there (even if sometimes they are disingenuous or contain straw man arguments), we tear each other apart because of vague ideological accusations. Suggesting that these people should be attacked in some way because of vague accusations of being Bourgie is absolutely crazy. Make an actual critique of La Passe if you have a problem with them.

So apparently there are sanctioned and standardized means of doing a critique, whereas this wasn't a critique. So how do I make it recognized as "critique"... by submitting it to the Imaginary Party for impending approval.

Its amazing how defensive people are, I never said there is a sanctioned and standardized form of critique, but what I expect people to do isn't just sling vague accusations against people, but actually say what it is that you don't like about them. Actually give us the details, tell us the things that they do or things that they say that makes them supposedly terrible.

But itdrainingcats, you didn't answer my question above... Which is why should I or anyone relate to this La Passe crowd as "fellows" or "comrades"? This ain't 1936 Catalonia or 1942 France or 1944 Yugoslavia you know. Not everyone should be assume as a comrade, even less a fellow, just because of some pretense at anarchism, radicality, insurrection and else. I'm not sharing a life with them... and sharing a struggle?

What struggle?

1- Francis Dupuis-Dery's upper-caste anarchist struggle?

2- Tiqqunian dual power communism?

3- Batshit retrograde Left nationalism tainted with antisemitism?

4- Mao's revolution?

5- Bolivar's cocky rrrrrrevolucion?

6- Spain 1936-37?

7- Fighting gentrifiers, but not those of your own crowd?

8- Banner-deep antifascism, along with the crowd involved in the seven struggles above!?

A few of those, I would 100% not to fuck with. And I don't doubt they show up at La Passe.

But jesus, it's not One Giant Bloc of everything you think is bad. And like, by ENGAGING, you have some chance of challenging shit you think sucks, in a more surgical way, while finding folks you maybe like more

But keep on your cop logic, thinking you've got everyone figured out already, cuz "you know these sorts of people, and anyone good would have already left the scene"

I never said that you should relate to them as comrades, in fact I said if you want to critique them then write an actual critique, not just sling vague insults at them. You list those things assuming that any of us know anything about La Pass and are familiar with the context here, I mean none of those things (except the maoism one) were even brought up in the communique at all. they just kind of said that they are bourgie and that they read things they didn't like and some how that was supposed to tell us anything about why we should be happy this happened.

If it that list of things is actually an accurate representation of what they do, then they should be critiqued for it, but again write an actual critique. However I really still despise the anti-intellectualism in the communique that implies that reading is terrible.

I don't think you should be too offended by the interest in this drama, because this kind of shit is also happening here in the US. Lately there has been attempts by some anarchists to police other anarchists over having different ideas than they do and like what happened to you, there have been certain actions taken by those people and self righteously proclaimed as legitimate political actions. so this is particularly of interest to us.

I couldn't take Shadowsmoke's and IRC's reactions very seriously, as they seem somewhat hypocrite to me... (or just very naive?) but you do make a sound statement I can't discard.

Perhaps the reason why such harsh internal attacks (not attack in the insurgent or martial sense, but more on the relational sense, which is an attack) are being done is due to these/this people already "eating shit" in the first place... being already antagonized or ostracized by the milieu gravitating around this place, or at least by some people involved?

If so, the gravity goes beyond just the measly issue of a graffiti and its potential for being a grievance for the landlord. There is a relational ill that could mean further resentment or trauma-fueled violent behavior. Maybe it's been going on already, and this is just a small manifestation of a bigger problem.

Are there ways perhaps to restore or build some ties of trust or mutual respect somewhere, or at least between the lesser controversial or nicer people in this crowd? I remember having attended a few events at the old La Passe, and although I did get along with several people there, there was this old elite crowd of Leftists who really were (trying to) manage the place and were not really nice people... more like the pedantic and prickish behavior that is being hinted above. They felt like politicians, or managers. Quite a misplaced attitude for such a place that seeks to be inclusive, to allow precarious people to do their shit and have a good time...

And if this space and the project overall is in a position of difficulty, is it possible to know how to give a hand? Last time I asked about it was prior to the first eviction. Nobody replied, and the eviction went on unopposed due to the hermetic decisions of the apparent in-crowd... Not my kind of comrades.

This is a battle of aesthetics and its lame
1. Voluntarily homeless or poverty stricken crust punks who shoot dope and adopt pitbulls wearing dirty black clothes
2. Hipsters anarchists with college backgrounds who like to go to brunch wearing clean black clothes.

See all the resentment from the authors of the "attack", on which I will prefer not to respond directly since I know it only fuels its negative drive. But since I know La Passe, I think some elements have to be clarified.

-La Passe is a heterogeneous collective gathering between 10 to 20 people more or less: many groups are organizing under that umbrella (and some of them are doing serious political shit at is has been mentioned before). So "attacking" this kind of diverse autonomous place just because you have fucking personal problems with some people involved there (who doesn't seem to exist as you described them by the way) is a pretty bad tactic.

-La Passe as a collective have never explicitly defined itself as "anarchist": some of the events happening there are included in the Mtl Anarchist Calendar because the people doing that calendar asked for it; and if La Passe had a table at the Anarchist Bookfair two years ago, it was because the collective have been invited to join the event. But in the everyday life of the collective, claiming out loud to be “anarchist” is not a preoccupation at all. So the whole point of accusing the collective of being "fake anarchist" is completely irrelevant.

-By the way, in French a "passe" is also the move you're doing in sport when you send the ball to your teammate. But it also refers to the expression "se passer", meaning "it's happening" ("Ça se passe"). I think the collective wanted to play with the polysemy of the term anyways. But of course it was more useful to the authors of the "attack" to present only the negative meaning of the expression to legitimate their action here.

I'm still strucked that while fascists in Quebec are more active than ever in the recent history, and while gentrification, speculation and spectacle in that city heights at summits, the best thing some people identifying with anarchy find to do a Saturday night is to "attack" one of the too rare autonomous space in the city, in a context where many of them have been kicked out or threatened recently. In that sense, yeah you are really nihilists. And that's fucking pathetic.

Carpet-bomb a neighborhood with graffiti and write lengthy boring communiques to justify it--no one bats an eye; spray paint three words on the door of "heterogenous collective gathering" space, publish two loony chiding theses and everyone loses their minds. C'mon, lighten up, laugh at yourself. If Anarchy is one big fractious, scrappy family, which I think it should be, then expect quarrels, disagreements, food fights, and a little thrown paint. If the shit really pisses you off, paint back (use black though), and have fun. If I can't laugh until I lose bladder control, then I don't want your Revolution.

but... this comment totally sucks. Maybe we can have a whole conversation about whether people SHOULD respond emotionally to shit that's posted on the internet, but whatever the result, the fact is that they DO.

Also, like, I thought this was funny enough to contribute to with a stupid comment making fun of the whole situation. Behold: https://anarchistnews.org/comment/245310#comment-245310 What you're doing here is to say "have a better sense of humour about these things", rather than making any kind of actually funny joke (so, I agree with the comment in French above, which says your joke sucks).

It's like... At this point, people have expressed why this situation sucks for the people involved in the social space. I know it's just paint, and probably the term "prank" is more appropriate than the term "attack" to describe what happened, but this may contribute to the precarity of an autonomous space in my town. It's a shitty thing to do, and it's a shitty thing to dismiss as "boys being boys" or some shit.

Do better, man. Also, email me? We can talk it out if you want, non-public. I lost yours a while ago when I had computer trubs.

This is the best he can do. All he knows is travelling around, playing the voyeur and running snarky commentary on people who actually do things. Sometimes he's quite astute but that pony only got one trick haha

Weeee aristocrats OWN the caviar factories AND the oceans they are bred in. We will have some of our subservient serfs clean off all the graffiti which the rebel bourgiousie have vandalized our factories with, and we shall give our foremen extra coersive powers to instill class consciousness vehemently into the peasants we offer fruitful employment to!!

le passe is so normatively-colonialy opressive to my soul. I'm like totally unsure of what that means... but it means something... also, french canadians stole native land so stop speaking french and just do like everyone else Ok. Such bourgeoisie such tiqqunist-maoist-turkish-hamburger-a white van- my fat husky (i think i'ts like a wolf )- smash windows and stuff yaayyy im a child;<3

It's weird how you can't conceive of identity as anything but a way to appeal to pity or guilt.

I offer it as a partial explanation for why I think you're a piece of shit for the things you say. The other reasons should be even more obvious. What you deserve, you won't get because you're safely behind a keyboard ;)

I deny "indigenous consciousness" because only a racist dumbass would look at a group of people who happen to share some genetics or assume that means they all think the same way. Do you think there's a "white consciousness"?

Mostly, your post is just gibberish. Is there something seriously wrong with your brain?

Oh come now Darling, we both know you just like talking and there's very little method to your madness. You're a half step up from word-salad most of the time, stringing snippets of other people's ideas together and hoping you come across as clever, hmm? ;)